Testing the Kerr Metric with X-Ray Reflection Spectroscopy of Mrk 335 Suzaku Data

Choudhury, Kishalay; Nampalliwar, Sourabh; Abdikamalov, Askar B.; Ayzenberg, Dimitry; Bambi, Cosimo; Dauser, Robert C.; García, Javier A.

doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ab24d6

Cited by 14 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 95 publications

(125 reference statements)

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“…Future work includes constraining the new metric found in this paper with current and future observations. For example, one can use observations of X-ray continuum spectrum and iron line emissions from accretion disks around BHs to constrain some of the parameters, as already done in [110][111][112][113][114]. Another way to constrain the metric is to use future gravitational-wave observations.…”

Section: Conclusion and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Asymptotically flat, parametrized black hole metric preserving Kerr symmetries

Carson¹,

Yagi²

2020

Phys. Rev. D

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Recently the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration, with very-long baseline interferometric observations, resolved structure at the scale of ∼ 5 Schwarzschild radii about the center of M87 * , the supermassive black hole resident at the center of Messier 87. This important observation has paved the way for testing what is known as the "no-hair" theorem, stating that isolated black holes are described by the Kerr metric, parameterized only by their mass and spin. Generic, parameterized spacetimes beyond Kerr allow one to arbitrarily test the no-hair theorem for deviations from the Kerr result with no prior theoretical knowledge or motivation. In this paper, we present such a new general, stationary, axisymmetric and asymptotically flat black hole solution with separable geodesic equations (thus preserving symmetries of a Kerr black hole), extending the previous work of Johannsen. In this new metric, five free non-linear functions parameterically deviate from the Kerr result, allowing one to effectively transform to many alternative black hole solutions present in the literature. We then derive analytic expressions for the Keplerian and epicyclic frequencies, the orbital energy and angular momentum, and the location of the innermost stable orbit of circular equatorial particle orbits. We also compute the image of the photon rings in the new spacetime, which correspond to the boundary of the black hole shadow image taken by the Event Horizon Telescope. We finally compare each quantity for the Kerr result against various parameterizations of the metric, finding that, especially for highly rotating black holes, the two solutions disagree significantly. Such a metric parameterization allows one to perform the no-hair tests in a modelindependent way, and finally map constraints to specific alternative theories of gravity.

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Section: Conclusion and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Asymptotically flat, parametrized black hole metric preserving Kerr symmetries

Carson¹,

Yagi²

2020

Phys. Rev. D

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“…We have extended this model to RELXILL_NK, which can calculate the reflection spectrum for non-Kerr metrics [15,16]. The model has been applied to x-ray observations of several astrophysical BHs to place constraints on deviations away from the Kerr solution [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Testing general relativity with x-ray reflection spectroscopy: The Konoplya-Rezzolla-Zhidenko parametrization

et al. 2020

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X-ray reflection spectroscopy is a promising technique for testing general relativity in the strong-field regime as it can be used to test the Kerr black hole hypothesis. In this context, the parametrically deformed black hole metrics proposed by Konoplya, Rezzolla, and Zhidenko [Phys. Rev. D 93, 064015 (2016)] form an important class of non-Kerr black holes. We implement this class of black hole metrics in RELXILL_NK, which is a framework we have developed for testing for non-Kerr black holes using x-ray reflection spectroscopy. We perform a qualitative analysis of the effect of the leading order strong-field deformation parameters on typical observables like the innermost stable circular orbits and the reflection spectra. We also present the first x-ray constraints on some of the deformation parameters of this metric, using Suzaku data from the supermassive black hole in Ark 564, and compare them with those obtained (or expected) from other observational techniques like gravitational waves and black hole imaging.

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“…It has been extended to other spacetime metrics in the _ suite of models (Bambi et al 2017;Cao et al 2018;Tripathi et al 2018;Abdikamalov et al 2019b;Zhou et al 2019;Tripathi et al 2020a,b;Zhou et al 2020). These _ modified gravity theory models are used to constrain the deviations from the Kerr solution using X-ray observations of BHs (Nampalliwar et al 2020;Liu et al 2019;Xu et al 2018;Choudhury et al 2019;Zhou et al 2018;Tripathi et al 2019a,c;Zhang et al 2019a,b;Tripathi et al 2019bTripathi et al , 2020c.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Constraints on Einstein-Maxwell dilaton-axion gravity from X-ray reflection spectroscopy

Tripathi,

Zhou,

Abdikamalov

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Einstein-Maxwell dilaton-axion gravity is a string-inspired model arising from the low energy effective action of heterotic string theory and an important candidate as alternative to General Relativity. Recently, some authors have explored its astrophysical implications in the spectra of accreting black holes and inferred the constraint 𝑟 2 < 0.1, where 𝑟 2 ≥ 0 is the black hole dilaton charge and General Relativity is recovered for 𝑟 2 = 0. In the present paper, we study the impact of a non-vanishing black hole dilaton charge on the reflection spectrum of the disk. From the analysis of a NuSTAR spectrum of the black hole binary EXO 1846-031, we find the constraint 𝑟 2 < 0.011 (90% CL), which is an order of magnitude more stringent.

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Testing the Kerr Metric with X-Ray Reflection Spectroscopy of Mrk 335 Suzaku Data

Cited by 14 publications

References 95 publications

Asymptotically flat, parametrized black hole metric preserving Kerr symmetries

Asymptotically flat, parametrized black hole metric preserving Kerr symmetries

Testing general relativity with x-ray reflection spectroscopy: The Konoplya-Rezzolla-Zhidenko parametrization

Constraints on Einstein-Maxwell dilaton-axion gravity from X-ray reflection spectroscopy

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